Burial - Street Halo

Press your ear to the pavement above the London underground and you might just hear, rumbling distantly below, the ghostly sounds of Burial. As his name suggests, the music of the elusive British dubstep artist, née William Bevan, is pointedly somber. His first two LPs, 2006’s Burial and 2007’s Untrue, set forth an eerie, industrial minimalism that evoked a sense of dread and decay. But Burial and Untrue were particularly notable for their rhythmic ingenuity, marrying epileptic syncopation with deep grooves. His new EP, Street Halo, maintains their morose atmospherics but takes those grooves even further.

The title track is a din of tribal wood blocks, throbbing synths and ethereal vocal samples that sets the pace with its propulsive dance beat. Though it bears Burial’s unmistakable signatures—ominous production, skeletal percussion—the sound is now expansive and persistent enough to pack a club. On “NYC,” the tone transitions to one of reflection, even meditation. Its sparse percussion, comprised of little more than a kick drum, high hat and rim taps, creates a cavernous space in which synths expand and contract as a solitary voice laments, “Nobody loves me.” In spite of the melancholy, its rhythm is a driving death funk that keeps your head nodding even as it lulls you into a wistful trance.

Unfortunately, the final song, “Stolen Dog,” is a throwaway. Built around an awkward, artificial horn hook, it features a barrage of distracting sound effects and a monotonous four-on-the-floor bass drum beat. It’s as though Burial picked up the scraps left over from the first two songs and carelessly threw them together to round out the album.

Though short (a mere 20 minute runtime), Street Halo ranks among Burial’s best work, and represents an intriguing shift in direction for the producer that portends a more traditional dance-oriented approach. Next time we hear him, Burial may have emerged from the deep.

—Josh Stillman